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Iconic Movies & their Iconic Songs

It all started with seeing recently the movie “To Be or Not to Be,” the original 1942 version. A funny and memorable film, I remembered that Mel Brooks had remade this film in the early 1980s starring himself and actress, Anne Bancroft, his wife in real life. I’ve actually haven’t seen yet the Mel Brooks 1983 version of “To Be or Not to Be.”

Anyway for some reason at this point I began to do research on actress Anne Bancroft – I’ve always admired her work. It turns out at her funeral in 2005, musician Paul Simon played the song of his “Mrs. Robinson” as a tribute to Anne Bancroft and the role of Mrs. Robinson that she played in the 1967 movie “TheGraduate.” Made now some 45 years ago, the film “The Graduate” along with the song “Mrs. Robinson” has reached, in my opinion, something of iconic stature in modern culture.

It occurred to me that there are actually several iconic movies that have equally iconic songs connected to them. I’m not speaking of musicals of the Oscar & Hammerstein variety or more recently the animated musicals of Alan Menken & Howard Ashman – I’m referring to films where a song that is played in the film possibly captures people’s emotions as much as the film does.

I’ve decided here to make a list of what I consider iconic films along with their equally iconic songs. I know I’m going to miss a few. I’m going to start with one from the 1940s and try to move forward chronologically.

1940s

Film: Holiday Inn (1942); Song: “White Christmas”

Film: Casablanca (1942); Song “As Time Goes By”

1950s

Film: Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1955); Song “Love is a Many Splendored Thing”

Film: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956): Song “Que Sera Sera” (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)